2015 - 2016

Maya Acocella, Jennifer Alcott, Casey Allred, Justin Alston, Ebony Argaez, Andrew Banks, Rachel Baylor, Alexandra Bean, Tara Beaton, Emily Bjanes, Michelle Briner, Jasmine Brown, Andrew Browning, Lindsay Burns, Andrew Caldwell, Olivia Chaisson, Charles Ray Christian, Gi Hong Chung, Kirstie Coombs, Elizabeth Cordeiro, Kimberly Cunningham, Megan Dang, Andrew Desrochers, Vijay Dev, Morgan Epps, Jason Fleischer, Andrew Frumkin, Mariel Gaviola, Terrance Glover, Brian Goncalves, Briana Gooden, Kushol Huq, Hesham Ismail, Morgan Janes, Ariel Jarvis, Shiv Kaul, Brian Kelly, Andrew (Rex) Kennedy, Sydney Klein, Emily Krohn, Eugene Lin, Ellen Lowry, Sam Massa, Kevin Merrick, Michael Michelotti, Katelyn Moore, David Moreno, Brendan Morrison, Jacqueline Mueck, Alexander Mueck, Jason Nekritz, Emma Oroxom, Amanda Phillips, Sahana Rao, Casii Reed, Nathan Rennich, Sharon Ridge, Jessica Rothman, Vikram Singh, Jennifer Stanton, Kevin Strasser, Maryia Svirydava, Dylan Taylor, Peter Walderhaug, Jennifer Wall, Kejin Wang, Ruth Wang, Thomas Wissman, Kal Yang, Kristina Yin, Andrea Zou

coaches

Officer Body

  • President: Andrew Desrocher

  • Vice President: Andrew ‘Rex’ Kennedy

  • Secretary: Emily Bjanes

  • Treasurer: Alex Mueck

  • Historian:  Kushol Huq

Award Recipients

  • Best Female Trouper: Emily Bjanes

  • Best Male Trouper: Terrance Glover

  • Best Act: Free Movement - Andrew Banks, Charles Ray Christian, Vijay Dev, Terrance Glover, Kushol Huq, Shiv Kaul, Kevin Merrick, Brendan Morrison, Vikram Singh, and Thomas Wissman

70th Anniversary, Friday Night Lights

The Troupe entered their 70th season with aspirations of a spectacular show season and tributes to Gymkana’s legacy. They did not disappoint. Despite a frigid winter that included a historic blizzard and multiple dead truck batteries, their performance season was a big success. Several twists were included in traditional Gymkana acts and veteran performers took their skills and acts to new levels.

A major fundraising campaign was launched in February 2016 to fund a Gymkana history preservation project. This history website is a direct result of that campaign. Over $26,000 was raised to support the digitization of thousands of photos, videos, and documents stored in the University Archives. Contributors to that effort are recognized in the Acknowledgments page.

Troupers involved with more than one Home Show have almost certainly witnessed a problem or two with the lighting. Blown bulbs, controls not working, etc. It seems there's always something. This year, setup and rehearsal had gone relatively smoothly. However, about 15 minutes before the start of the Friday night Home Show, one of the leko lights stopped working. In the past the problem had been that the receptacle in the back of the control box had gone bad, which requires switching the plug to a backup. This almost always solved the issue. Unfortunately what resulted this time was power failure to all of the lekos. Effectively that meant the show lost half of their lighting.

There was a delay in the start of the show as coaches, alumni and volunteers tried to fix the problem. Had the control box shorted out? If so, there was no way to repair it. In truth there really wasn't even time to diagnose the problem.

As the saying goes, the show had to go on. Some acts were lit with just the footlights and spotlights. For the larger acts that required the lekos, the Xfinity Center’s house lights were brought up. The show did go on before an appreciative audience but without a lot of the lighting effects that had been staged. 

Hats off to the troupers for doing their acts despite the problems. Special thanks to Warren Balogh and Ken Mateik on the spotlights as well as alumni Vicky Baramki, Liz (Desrochers) Kreft and Christy (McClellan) Asonglefac who were running the lighting controls on the floor. They all adapted to the changes and had a large part in making that show successful.

After the show, coaches and others tried to diagnose the problem. Recognition goes out to Paul Rosenblum and Joe Kreft in trying to get things fixed for Saturday night.

Finally on Saturday afternoon, alumnus Rich Baum and Warren Balogh, working with Alvin, an electrician for Xfinity Center, discovered that the lighting system had actually burned out one of the grounds for the Xfinity Center. They were able to fix the system to make sure that it didn't happen again, and with that, Saturday night's Home Show went off with lighting as planned.

It was another example of how Gymkana coaches, troupers, alumni and supporters come together to solve problems. A fitting tribute for Gymkana 70th anniversary.

Itinerary

  • 2/5/2016 - Magothy River Middle School - Arnold, MD

  • 2/12/2016 - Dayton Oaks Middle School - Dayton, MD

  • 2/13/2016 - UMD vs. Wisconsin men’s basketball halftime show - College Park, MD

  • 2/19/2016 - Grasonville Elementary School - Grasonville, MD

  • 2/26/2016 - Boonsboro Middle/High School - Boonsboro, MD

  • 3/4/2016 - Hagerstown Community College - Hagerstown, MD

  • 3/11/2016 - Luxmanor Elementary School - Rockville, MD

  • 4/8/2016 - Julius West Middle School - Rockville, MD

  • 4/15/2016 & 4/16/2016 - Home Show

  • 4/30/2016 - Maryland Day - College Park, MD